Interview with Greek's Paul James

AE: Where are you from originally?
PJ: I'm from Maryland. I was born in D.C., but raised in suburban Maryland.

AE: Have you always wanted to act?
PJ: Yeah, pretty much. My mom actually wanted to be an actress and my father actually wanted to be a painter, which is pretty funny, but neither of them really ended up doing that. They both have regular jobs.

AE: Were they supportive of your being an actor?
PJ: Oh, yeah, most definitely. They really approved. They came to all my plays and when I did theater in college they drove up to every single play I was in. I count myself lucky because there's a lot of people who come out here with no money or without the support of their parent. My parents helped me out a great deal, especially when I first came out here. I definitely am very, very lucky to have had that.

AE: How did you get cast as Calvin?
PJ: I was working at P.F. Chang's in Santa Monica, which is a great place. I worked there for three years and they would always let me come in late if I had an audition. There was a casting director named Johnny Barba, and he became friends with a bunch of us who worked there. He told me about a project he was working on, but wasn't sure I'd be right for it because it was about fraternities and sororities.

I said I was actually in a fraternity in college. So we sort of set up the audition. I went to the audition and I think it went well. We got along really well and then like a week later I hadn't heard anything and then I called him. He said that I had sort of fallen off the table, and that even though I had done a good job, they just kind of forgot about me. So he got in touch with the directors and I guessed they popped my tape in and then the director and producers were like, “Oh, he's great. Have him cast tomorrow.” That's how it worked.

AE: At what point did you know it was going to be a gay role?
PJ: I knew from the beginning. It was written in the break down. But all I had to go from was the pilot and if you've seen the pilot you see it's not mentioned until the end of the show. But you know, the thing I've found out about TV is you just never really know, you can base your character on the pilot and then with every succeeding episode you get more information about your character and you sort of have to alter your view of what you're going to do.

AE: Was there any concern for you or for your management on taking a gay role?
PJ: No, there definitely wasn't. Because if the characters are well-written, then that's all you can hope for as an actor, especially a young actor. There's really not a lot of great parts.

There is this movie I auditioned for once. I don't remember what it was called, but it was just awful. And there was a gay character and it was a complete stereotype. You know, being a black guy I'm very sensitive to stereotypes. The role shouldn't even be on screen. I was just trying to get out of auditioning for the role and my manager, who is great, but forceful, said, “You gotta do it” and I'm like, “Awww, I don't want to do this.” She's like, “It's because you're gay? Everyone plays gay.” It's not because of that. It's because it's poorly written.

AE: Are you surprised by the strong reaction of the gay community to Calvin?
PJ: I don't really know what the reaction is . . .

AE: It's really positive. People really like the way you're playing him.
PJ: I guess I'm not surprised. I think it's pretty well written. You know, Sean's [Greek's creator] said from the beginning he really wants this character to not be a stereotype. He wants him to be one of the first gay characters on TV who doesn't have angst about being gay. … and he's comfortable about who he is. He's unsure of his surroundings and stuff.

I did get a really nice note from one of my friends from college and he said thank you so much for the portrayal, a positive portrayal, and that was really cool. That meant a lot. It's been really nice so far.